Stubb's Original Bar-B-Q Sauce
Background
Stubb's got its start in Lubbock, Texas in 1968 when Christopher B. "Stubb" Stubblefield opened his first barbecue joint. His restaurant became known not only for the barbecue, but also for the live music. In the 1980s a series of circumstances forced Stubb to close and relocate in Austin. In 1992, Stubb's gained some national fame follwing an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, and after that, went on to start a line of barbecue products for the backyard chef. Stubb's passed away in 1995, but his empire lives on with the Austin location and a national offering of six different sauce, six marinades, and five rubs.
Aroma
Unlike most sauces that have a sweet ketchup smell, this sauce has a deeper tomato base, reminiscent of tomato paste. A strong vinegar mixes with the tomato to define the aroma, and notes of chipotle and molasses round it out.
Thickness & Texture
The thickness is right in the center of my scale, but the sauce doesn't quite flow off the spoon, instead coming down in globs. The sauce is opaque, but with visible specks of what looks like black pepper and garlic or onion powder.
Out of the Jar
First taste of the sauce is pure tomato, thick and deep like tomato paste spiked with a heavy dose of vinegar. There isn't much sweetness going on, instead you get the bite of vinegar followed by a wallop of heat, tasting mostly of sharp black pepper and smoky chipotle. The sauce has a grainy, gritty feel that bothered me slightly, but not enough to ruin the sauce on the whole.
Slathered & Cooked
The strong tomato base of the sauce is accentuated after being cooked, with the sauce tasting mostly of tomato and not much else. There was minimal caramelization, but where it did, those pieces had a nice, deep flavor, but the unfortunately, the majority of the sauce that didn't get a slight char ended up being a bit flat, despite the strong flavors that were there before being grilled.
Put to Use
This sauce definitely performed better before being cooked, where there was a lot more going on, but those flavors were a little strong on vinegar and pepper and the sauce a little gritty, which makes it hard to really recommend this for one particular thing. Although in general I didn't hate the sauce, the inability to really pair it with anything definitely puts it further down on my list. Originating from Texas, I could see this going along with beef, where the heavy flavors of the sauce might come into balance with the beef, but I think there are much better sauces out there for this use.
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Comments
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Stubb's Legendary BBQ We appreciate all feedback, positive, negative, as well as middle of the road like here. Thank you for taking your time and giving us a shot.
We hope you'll try our other sauces and marinades and see which one is tuned for your preferences. Also, we wanted to share that our current recipes (working its way into grocery store inventories now) maintain the flavors of our older recipe but do away with all corn syrup (and all glutens). -
Ralph are you kidding? this sauce is flawless and it just became my favorite sauce! Im a big BBQ sauce guy and after trying everything this is my top sauce for sale.
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Randy this is my favorite sauce, I have tried several and even a home made version, this is by far the best.
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Pauly I'm with Ralph and Randy. To me, nothing beats Stubb's original. I love the strong tomato flavor, and the lack of a cloying sweetness. It's just right.
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Eddie I bought this to use for pulled pork I made for my dad. He's diabetic, and I don't care much for sweet sauce, so I chose this for the low sugar content. I enjoyed it a great deal. I would have gone for the hot version, but dad doesn't like spicy. All in all, I'd get it again and I'd certainly rate it higher than a 4/10.
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Mike Altomare Has anybody tried Stubb's Sweet Heat?
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Tom My favorite "supermarket sauce". A great alternative to the other supermarket sauces ranked higher which are thick brown goo with a overly sweet taste due to corn syrup, molasses and Honey..
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Dave Opened a bottle of this up last weekend and really enjoyed it. I love the peppery flavor and the fact there is no sugar finish. Sweet sauces have their place but so do bold sauces such as Stubbs. This sauce is great with brisket and pork shoulder or even on a plain hamburger. I would rate it higher in the 7-8 range.
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Michelle Lewis My daughter tried this on a whim and called me raving about it, so I went into the supermarket and brought two bottles, the sticky sweet and hot. can I tell you this is hands down the best barbeque ever!!! I will never as long as I'm on planet earth use another barbeque sauce other than stubb's, both my parents were cooks and my daughter and I are foodies and never have I tasted a barbeque sauce with this much flavor, I had to stop myself from putting the bottle to my mouth and just drinking it straight out the bottle. this is barbeque sauce, I will put this on everything!! in fact tomorrow I'm making red rice and beans and guess the gravy going over that up Stubb's!!!
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Mark At 65 years of age I have tried a ton of BBQ sauces including many of my own. I can say hands down whether on a brisket or on burgers, Stubbs is the best of the best. I will continue to use these products until I meet my maker.
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Terry hicks The best I've tasted in quite some time
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Andy Hey, there's no arguing in matters of taste and you are entitled to your tastes and preferences but . . . I love the Stubbs! The original and the smoky mesquite are viscous liquid gold. The black pepper variety didn't do it for me, but the original gets 9/10 stars from me.
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Ryan McCain You misspelled following. Nice article.
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Mike 4/10? Wow
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Joe Flash I would say that the guy giving the rating must be half a woman!! But then most of the women that I know that love barbeque loved Stubbs when I used it on a couple different chicken and steak dishes. 4 out of 10? What a joker!! I don't care what your rating!! 4 out of 10 is an insult to anyone's product no matter what your trying to rate on a 1 to 10 scale!! Anyone rating something as widely appreciated and clearly successful as Stubb's with a 4 ?? A fuckin "4" guy????? Really?? Clearly has other motives and only detracts from they're own credibility by issuing such a number!! You can't be much further away from Texas in this country than Boston where I live and assuming that the most successful grocery store in the North East where I shop represents STUBBS products at about a 5 to 1 ratio to all other competing products combined based on what I assume dictates the over all volume comparitively of all the products sold in the store!! Past success and the present demand!! No? And while this is a free country still and people are entitled to an opinion. A rating this low for something so clearly successful at a level beyond the competition would be like Roger Goodell insisting that Tom Brady won more football games based on the amount of air in the footballs! It did'nt take too long for anyone with 2 eye's and 1/2 of a brain to realize that it was probably safe to assume that Mr Goodell clearly had alterior motives to publicly be sticking with that theory after reviewing the tape. And before I get too far off into that whole sham. The point is anytime I see someone making negative comentary or giving a rediculously low rating to anyone or anything that is overwhelmingly in contrast to the majority opinion and all of the track record and facts surrounding this subject or any other!!! The first thing that comes to mind is motives!!! When I read this rating I immidiatelly think, This guy's got motives!! Roger Goodell ?? Motives! Credibility for either one?? Questionable at best!! But he does have a blog called Meatwave.com!! And I assume there's gotta be some good reason for that! But why not give someone a higher rating and like a 6 or a 7 if what your rating just isn't your cup tea. 4?????? Makes U sound like a hater with motives or worse it makes U look like a Roger Goodell!!
And look at him!! He's got 3 news worthy sherades every year where he give's the NFL'S Official position on the issue and next to no one believe's a single word coming out of his mouth!! If my rating of this blog was a low as a 4 ?? Well I'd probably just say " meat blogs really arn't my thing so any rating from me would be misleading or give the wrong impression of something that the average meat blogging fan might love"" either that or "" you might want to search around!! This guy's got motive's!!! %uD83D%uDE1C"" -
Zee Lowell Best store bought sauce hands down! Tons of sauces here where i live in Canada, but Strubbs is my go-to sauce...chicken or steaks. Awesome sauce!!
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Mike Best sauce I have ever had!!!
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Gerry I've got two bottles of Stubb's BBQ Sauce in my fridge; Original & Spicy. They're okay, not great and not bad. Taste is a personal opinion and like everyone else I've got mine. I think the reviewer in the article gave his honest personal opinion and the last time I checked this was allowed here in the U.S. As to comments by Joe Flash it sounds as if he's got an agenda with his personal attack on the author of the article. Name calling (he must be a woman), and then berates him because he didn't rate it higher. New's flash; it's fine if you think the sauce is great and it's a hot seller at your grocery store in Boston, but don't tell me or anyone else how we must rate a product because our opinions are just as valid as yours. We won't stop you from purchasing and enjoying Stubb's products and would appreciate you not trying to stop us from purchasing and enjoying the products that best suit our tastes. Take a look at the reply from the manufacturer to see how respectful they are of all opinions.
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Henrietta Adler I bought the Stubbs bbq sauce and I tasted the sucralose. WHY DO YOU PUT DANGEROUS INGREDIENTS INTO THIS PRODUCT. Sucralose does the following: For some people, it may raise blood sugar and insulin levels. It may also damage the bacterial environment in your gut, but this needs to be studied in humans.
I threw out the bottle. Terrible! -
Cara Stubb’s Original bbq sauce is hands down the BEST in my picky opinion. Perfect balance of tomato and spices without being sickeningly sweet. I even love the natural texture probably from the delicious molasses in the ingredients. I appreciate you removing the corn maltodextrin in the new recipe! Perfection!
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Fred Lots of fake reviews on this thread, or people with poor taste. The only flavor profile is overly sour chunky sauce with little redeeming characteristics. Avoid like the plague.
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Gay Magnuson “Original” i love spicy but i was very disappointed with Stubbs original too spicy, not enough “sweet “ taste for me . However i will try another Stubbs recipe.
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Tracey Was not sure getting a store brought sauce. You have me sold as this was beyond what I was expecting. The family loved and it made the sticky pork rashers the best they ever been. This was a special dinner for my oldest uni graduation. So it needed to be special. The family really enjoyed it and have been told to buy it again. I am in Australia.
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Coach Mccormick has changed the recipe and watered this sauce down, it used to be everyone's favorite
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Mike G I tried the Stubbs Sweet Heat and i was very surprised at how good it is!